In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration will soon allow unmanned aircraft systems (commonly referred to as UAVs/RPVs or drones) to be flown for commercial applications, such as for agricultural field scouting. Following this allowance, many licensed and unlicensed operators of these aircraft will operate, and nearly anyone may be able to rent a UAV/RPV for commercial and non-commercial use in the near future. Regardless of current or future operation, individuals and companies providing UAV/RPV services over greater distances are affected by weather patterns that can change significantly, temporally and spatially, as they operate and move from work order location to work order location.
Experienced, licensed operators avoid adverse conditions, whereas untrained operators may not fully understand the current or forthcoming flight conditions, and may therefore fly in unsafe conditions. Such unsafe conditions might be fog, strong winds, powerful wind gusts, precipitation, and rapidly changing temperatures and other weather factors that deteriorate flight conditions. A fast moving or quickly developing weather system may affect even experienced and licensed operators. As example of this risk, an untrained operator may fly an aircraft outside of a registered flight plan or even take off or operate the aircraft outside of a designated operating area, at least in part in response to weather phenomena.
Poorly trained or significantly inexperienced operators may frequently operate rented aircraft. These inadequately trained or inexperienced operators may attempt flights that intersect with poor flight conditions within a flight plan, or attempt to fly the aircraft outside of the designated operating area or registered flight plan as noted above. Including potentially hazardous payloads, such as chemical applications, significant risk to property and life exists if an operator is flying an aircraft in non-ideal or non-appropriate flight conditions, and such risks are ever-present for both trained and untrained operators. Rental companies may therefore be at risk for losing aircraft or be involved in property damage or personal injury litigation due to the compromised safety or death of persons and damage to livestock or other property interests.
Insurance companies have an interest due to their business activities in insuring against damage to aircraft, property (whether commercial, public, or private), or lifeforms, and these entities would be at risk for significant litigation costs or expensive insurance premiums. Flights undertaken in non-optimal or non-appropriate conditions are a risk to underwriters and others in the insurance industry in that they result in lower profit margins or lost profits, higher premiums, and potentially lengthy litigation or class action lawsuits.
Additionally, operators or aircraft owners may be liable for fees or fines from the Federal Aviation Administration or other national and international governing bodies for violating visual flight rules (VFR), instrument flight rules (IFR), and other rules if the aircraft is operated improperly or during improper conditions. Even with an experienced operator, an aircraft may not function or operate as intended under certain flight or weather conditions.
There is no existing system, method, or device that applies weather information to operation of UAVs/RPVs that monitors, provides advisories and warnings for, and prevents flight. Without such a system, method or device to prevent or restrict a flight under adverse conditions, aircraft will continue to perform risky activities. If an unmanned aircraft can be used in adverse conditions, it will. These ill-functioning or mal-performing flights may result in fees or fines as mentioned above, but worse circumstances or situations may arise from these types of non-operator-oriented issues.
Additionally, there is further risk associated with companies providing UAV/RPV services having to send crews and aircraft to non-optimal locations, resulting in delayed work orders or cancelled work orders. This type of risk of lost revenue may start before a flight has even begun. Areas as wide as even a few miles can be impacted by significantly different weather conditions. A crew may make decisions from a single flight or a set of flights without a complete understanding of weather conditions that in turn leads to a series of adverse-weather-related flight delays. Costs of these delays may not be recouped, resulting in lost revenue.
The lack of a pre-planned and weather-coordinated flight may also affect a time-critical or spatially-critical payload delivery, further exacerbating lost revenues. As an example of this, changing weather conditions may disperse chemical applications beyond a planned delivery area, resulting in damage to neighboring crops, livestock, water, and soil.